Monday, September 28, 2015

In chapters 15 and 16 Matt talks about cheating and "minimum effective dose." What are your thoughts about these 2 concepts and how do you "work smarter, not harder" in and out of your classroom to balance the different parts of your life? It seems that every book we read gets around to the importance of being a connected educator. Please share your Twitter handle (if you haven't already) and/or a resource you have found helpful: a Twitter handle or hashtag, a blog, a Pinterest user or specific board. Did something else in this section of the book jump out at you? Share your thoughts with the group.

This week marks our halfway point in the book club. If you have colleagues who would like to join, please tell them it's not too late. New participants just need to start with the introduction in week 1. For next week we will be reading the first half of section 3, chapters 23-27.

Monday, September 21, 2015

First of all, congratulations to blog participant Kari Catanzaro who was mentioned and quoted in chapter 8! It's great to see deserving Indiana educators in the spotlight.

The hard thing about reading fairly large chunks of the book at a time is that there are so many things to discuss. I'm going to throw out a couple of things that jumped out at me, but if you want to question or discuss something else, please feel free. I liked the idea of students either owning or renting their education. How do you encourage your students to own their education? Matt talks about the limitations of technology in the classroom. I'm sure you all are implementing technology to some extent in your classroom. How do you determine when it is appropriate to use technology and when it is not?

As you are participating in this blog discussion, please make sure you are logged into your Google account before you comment. Also, be sure that your profile is complete. We've had several people whose comments are showing up as "Unknown." I cannot give you credit toward your PGP points if I do not know who is making the comments.

For next week we will be reading and discussing the second half of the section "Ditch That Mindset," chapters 15-22.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Why go digital? Have you asked yourself this question? Of the seven reasons that Matt made to go digital, which one is most important to you? How have you already seen change in any of these areas in your classroom because of the implementation of technology?

As I've been looking through comments I've noticed several people's names are showing up as Unknown when they comment to blog posts. Please ensure that you have completed your profile. I need to know who is making comments so that I can award PGPs at the end of the book club.

Next week we will be reading and discussing chapters 8-14, the first half of the section "Ditch That Mindset."

Monday, September 7, 2015

Welcome to the fall eLearning book club. We are excited to read Ditch That Textbook: Free Your Teaching and Revolutionize Your Classroom by Indiana educator Matt Miller. The digital and paperback versions of this book can be
purchased from
Amazon.
If you don't have the book already, don't worry. You can jump into the
conversation a little late if you need to. Just catch up as soon as
you're able to.

Here are some particulars to help you as you participate in the book club:

A prompt or question will be posted here in the blog every Monday morning.

To receive notifications when posts are made, click Join this site or Follow by email in the bar to the right.

Respond
to our post and/or respond to a comment by another participant each
week. The more interaction there is between participants, the richer and
more beneficial the conversation will be.

In addition to the amazing connections and powerful learning of being in the book club, participants who make a meaningful contribution to every week's discussion
will be awarded 10 PGPs. Additionally, we will award one $1000
professional development grant at the conclusion of the summer book
club. Educators with a public school corporation who earn all 10 PGPs
are eligible for the grant.

**There
is no official sign up for the book club. Your first week's assignment
is to introduce yourself in a comment to this blog post. Just click the
comments link below this post and enter your comment in the text box. You
will need to be logged in using a Google account. In your introduction
be sure to include your name, school and/or corporation, and what your
role there is. (If you have any problems commenting, please email Meri Carnahan at carnahan@doe.in.gov.)